Some General updates
On the Face of It
So, on 7/31 I fell ill with Bell’s Palsy
The general tenor of the protocol was:
- take this Antiviral + steroid for a week
- In about 3 weeks, esxpect some improvement
- Watch it over the coming months
- There’s no guarantee it will actually improve. (Small % chance, but real)
As I sit here on 9/20, I still cant whistle, the eye situation still isn’t great–left eye/right eye coordination is dodgy. At least I don’t have to sleep with an eyepatch anymore. I can grin convincingly. I can’t smile evenly.
The doc is sending me in for OT starting next week.
Underarm Or?
I’ve had a sore lymph node since the MMR vaccine back in June. Maybe before? In any case, going in for an ultrasound as soon as we can get scheduled
Weather
This is the year of the Super El Niño
We had a relatively cool, wet spring (read: Lots of lawnmowing) that converted into an utter oven around July. We’ve had 48 100+ degree days versus an average of 29. We’re on track for the hottest September on record. Soccer matches in Austin delay 1-2 hours just because of the heat.
Beyond that, we had a massive hailstorm about 2 weeks ago that utterly destroyed our weather station and one unprotected Blink camera, so I had to replace those yesterday. Both were easy replacements and I did a like-for-like swap.
Oh NOAA, Where Art There?
So, on that hellacious hailstorm: We GOT NO WARNING. It arrived approximately 11pm and there were no Severe thunderstorm warnings of any sort. My weather radio in my bedroom stayed silent. Nothing came thorugh on our phones. I have to assume the gutting of NOAA has SNAFU’d NOAA.
Joy.
Maria
We drove Maria up to college on 17 August. She went up in her Corolla and Whitney and I went up with a fairly loaded Toyota Tundra. I was struck that this was 29 years to the day of when my own parents helped me move into Georetown College. Our move in “slot” was 1pm, and we joined the processing of cars pulling-up in the 106 degree heat (see above). A batallion of students swarmed over both cars and unloaded everything in roughly 90 seconds. Yes, really. By the time we got to her room, everything was already there, ready to place and unbox.
The remainder of the afternoon was me unboxing and assembling IKEA furniture (a chair, bookcase, etc.) and arranging furniture. Then we went out to dinner and got her some groceries.
We stuck around until nearly dark and then began the ~3 hour trip back.
Me
In the intervening month, I haven’t been great. Work has entered that season-of-the-year where it has nothing to do with actually delivering software: Hiring 3 (!) people, “Midyear” performance reviews that stretched into September, and planning for headcount and projects for next year.
There’s no other way to say it: I’ve become fractious, flinty, and sad. I miss my daughter and I’m trying to understand what life is without her here. More rumors of layoffs at work seem much more than rumors at this point. I should know more by October. The general disintegration of my profession in the face of AI falls into two camps:
- “I never liked coding anyway, I always liked solving problems. This is great.”
- “I enjoy nothing about this job anymore. I’m shoving around AI and the company won’t even let me review the code it vomits out in an AI slop grenade.”
On the whole, I suppose I’m glad I’m not a dev anymore. I don’t do well with revolutionary change going all the way back to Mobile Development and iOS.
On the bright (?) side, Grace has taken over M’s en suite bathroom, enjoying the bathtub instead of the shared standup shower